Category: TruMethods Blog

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Employee Burnout: What You Should Know

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

There’s been a lot of talk about employee burnout recently. With the labor shortage not getting any better, employers are demanding more from their employees, which is negatively impacting employee morale and productivity. Being able to identify employee burnout and prevent it from happening in the first place can make all the difference.

Employee burnout is a real problem and can harm your business if you choose to ignore it. Twenty-five percent of leaders feel that their employees are thriving emotionally and mentally, while 79 percent of leaders have seen a decrease in productivity because of employee burnout, according to a report published by Leadership IQ.

At some point, your employees may feel burnt out. What’s important is you’re able to identify when this happens and need to adjust accordingly.

Are your employees burning out?

No matter the size of your organization, employee burnout is a possibility, especially when you’re short-staffed. If you’re worried about employee burnout, there are several key indicators to look for in your organization. Spotting them should be relatively easy if you’ve taken the time to get to know your employees and can recognize subtle differences in their moods and emotions. Has temperament changed? Are more people putting in for PTO days? Are your employees checking in with you less frequently? Are they showing up late to work? If negative changes in employee behavior are evident, you may have a problem on your hands.

Avoiding Burnout in the First Place

While there are times when you’re going to get busy, preventing employee burnout is possible if you’re willing to put in the effort and take the necessary steps. First, pay attention to your employees. Check-in with them regularly. Simply asking how they’re doing and talking with them can go a long way and help you with identifying potential problems early on. Make sure your employees know how much you care about them. Despite all the ups and downs, it should never be a doubt in their minds. Prioritizing well-being in the workplace should be one of your goals for 2022. Also, don’t forget to have fun. Make it a point to order lunch regularly or plan quarterly events. If your employees are working remotely, send them lunch and hold virtual events. Provide a flexible work schedule if possible. Work shouldn’t be a place where employees dread going every morning.

Having Well-defined Roles

One of the most important things you can do is give every employee a well-defined role. We all need to know what success looks like. If we don’t, we don’t know what we’re working toward (and that can be draining). Unfortunately, many MSPs have loosely defined roles for their employees, meaning everyone wears many hats. (Of course, this is going to lead to employee burnout!) Never-ending workloads aren’t healthy, and they will lead to employees being burnt out. There needs to be a light at the end of the tunnel for everyone.

Don’t be so hard on yourself if your employees are feeling burnt out. You’re not a failure as a leader. It just means what you’re doing isn’t working and you should reevaluate your strategy and approach.

Take a Step Back and Ask, ‘Where Am I Headed?’

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

We are all in a business that can be all-consuming. Customers, tickets, employees, issues — it’s so easy to get up every day and plow through endless work. But today, I want to ask an important question, “Where do we go from here?”

This question should be answered from both a business and personal perspective. From a business standpoint, beyond your sales or profitability goals, where’s your business headed? The market is changing. Competitors are not the same. The size and complexity of our customers are evolving. Where does this leave you? What niche will you fill? What target prospects will you be able to gain a competitive advantage with in the future?

We’ve reached a point where most MSPs won’t be able to provide the same services they did in the past. This means you’re going to have to choose customers more carefully, and some of those referrals you receive will no longer be a fit for you, and lead generation will become even more important.

Next, think of where you’re going personally. Based on your age, your current net worth, and your plans for the future, what does your business need to generate in terms of growth, profitability, and valuation? If you’re not sure, start with using a retirement calculator, or better yet, find a qualified fiduciary.

Finally, consider your key team members in the same way. This process will make business goals more meaningful, and in most cases, more urgent. Invest more time in the business planning process and gaining command of your business, so that you can set the right priorities and execute the most important tasks each quarter.

Find some quiet time this weekend to take a step back and really think about where you’re headed.

In a Remote World, Don’t Forget About Face-to-Face Time with Your MSP Customers

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

Last month, we held our peer group meetings in Philadelphia. It was the first time TruMethods has had in-person meetings in more than two years. More than 200 MSPs came to town over the course of the week.

For many members, it was their first in-person meeting since the pandemic began. The overwhelming feedback was about how awesome it was to be back in person. We could see relationships being built. Our longtime members were thrilled and catching up with one another. It made me start to think about how this shift to remote work has impacted not just company culture but customer relationships.

Has your ‘face time’ been reduced with customers? Do your vCIOs prefer Zoom meetings over in-person meetings?

You can’t underestimate the impact of face-to-face time with customers. I know it’s easier to be remote and at times it may seem to be more efficient — but there is a cost.

You need to make decisions around what face-to-face time looks like with each of your customers, from a vCIO standpoint, and a technology alignment point of view. If you have customers that are now fully remote or have decision-makers that are outside of your geography, so get creative!

Maybe the strategy meeting is on Zoom with key stakeholders, and you schedule a breakfast or lunch with the decision-maker two to three times a year. Take some time to discuss this with your team.

Our world has changed and how people work has changed. However, people and relationships are the same. We are all in the relationship business first and the technology business second.

Measuring Your MSP Marketing Success

Posted on | Author Lindsay Faria

For MSPs, having a talented staff and a robust suite of technology and service offerings only gets you so far—you have to let prospective customers know your company exists and what you have to offer. Regular marketing through various channels is a crucial part of getting that message out, but many MSPs struggle to measure just how successful a given campaign has been.

Getting solid marketing metrics will help MSPs justify the cost of a campaign, but it can also help guide future efforts and save money that might otherwise be wasted on an ineffective approach.

For established MSPs, marketing campaigns will fall into two broad buckets: those targeted at new prospects (to close new sales) and those targeted at existing customers (to sell new services and keep clients engaged).

Gauging the success of these efforts will require looking at slightly different metrics. However, it’s important to remember that entirely accurate reporting on these programs is not possible. You simply cannot track every dollar spent back to sales, and even the tracking you do have access to is not telling the entire story. Turning a prospect into a qualified lead requires more than a dozen interactions and touchpoints. Many of these interactions build on one another in ways that will not be apparent in reporting.

Marketing to New Prospects

Marketing to new prospects can be measured in several ways. For email, web advertising, and other campaigns, MSPs will want to look at impressions, opens and click-throughs, and the performance of call-to-action items like filling out a form, requesting to be contacted, etc. Also, look at bounces and landing page interactions. For example, if you get a lot of click-throughs but very little engagement once the prospect arrives at your page, the campaign will need to be adjusted to encourage more activity.

MSPs should also track the growth rate of their customer and prospect databases. Following the conversion rate of those leads against actual sales will help you determine whether you’re getting any value from the campaign—how much did you spend versus how much revenue you brought in from those specific leads. Depending on how long the sales cycle is, it may take months to determine the true success of a particular campaign. 

Current Customer Marketing

Marketing to current customers requires a slightly different approach, as some of this activity is not directly tied to sales. In some cases, MSPs provide news, updates, new offers, and other information that keeps the client engaged and helps show the MSP’s value.

For more sales-driven campaigns, you would need to track the same metrics as with new prospects, but some data may need to come from the customer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, a current client may see a campaign and call their rep directly or send an email rather than clicking on a link. In that case, the campaign worked, but that activity will not be captured instantly. 

Define Goals and Metrics Upfront

Measuring the effectiveness of a marketing program also requires the MSP to define terms clearly. For example, calling someone a lead may mean different things to different people, so make sure everyone on the team (including any outside marketing firms) understands what will count as a qualified lead and what does not.

You also need clear goals. For example, if you’re simply trying to build brand visibility, increased web traffic and email opens may be a key metric. On the other hand, those metrics aren’t necessarily helpful if you’re targeting specific revenue figures.

Remember, too, that the number of sales generated does not necessarily reflect only the quality of the marketing effort. For example, if you get a high response rate from the wrong prospects, you may be hitting an incorrect list with a great campaign. Or, if conversion rates don’t match the level of engagement, it may be the sales process that needs tweaking, not the marketing campaign.

Achieving marketing success can be frustrating, but with the right investment level and clearly defined goals and metrics, MSPs can improve effectiveness and grow their business. In addition, it’s vital to have a holistic view of the results—not just from automated tracking but also from CRM data and information from the sales and marketing team. That will ensure MSPs can build a good program and quickly adjust when something isn’t working.

Lindsay Faria is Senior Director of MSP Marketing – Americas for Barracuda MSP.

MSPs, Here’s Your Reality Check

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

I want you to think back to before the pandemic began in March of 2020. How have your customers’ needs changed? What are you doing for them today that you weren’t doing then? What tools have you added to your stack? What security process and governance have you added?

I hope the answer is that a lot has changed.

Your customers have hybrid environments. They have increased their dependency on technology. The security landscape has changed dramatically. Your tools and process should have changed too.

Now, here’s the reality check.

How much have your costs changed? Are your tool costs higher? Are you paying higher salaries? Do you know how much it costs to deliver additional processes?

If your prices have not increased significantly over the past two years, there are only a few reasons why. You’re either falling behind, seeing lower margins, or both.

I encourage you to do a deep dive into your Micro and Macro Picanomics. Go to the TruMethods portal to watch the videos on both topics and use the calculator we provide. For our peer members, we will be doing a special project on packaging and pricing this quarter.

A few tips come to mind.

Be sure that everyone who delivers services fits into one of your delivery areas. If not, you will not be capturing their costs. This means your margins will be lower than what you calculate. For tool cost calculation, take each tool that you include for the delivery of your managed offering and do a unit conversion to the average cost per seat. Remember that we’re targeting 70 percent of the gross margin on our core managed offering.

Our industry has gone through so many changes over the past few years. If you haven’t made the necessary adjustments in your business to adapt to the reality we’re now living in, it’s time to reassess your approach.

Well, Look at That — It’s Already Q2 2022

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

We always say that time moves quickly, and it does — it’s already Q2 2022. Notice how I noted the quarter, not the month?

A quarterly mindset is important in business. You should look at your business in four 13-week quarters. When you think about the business planning process, you have a long-term vision, three-year targets, an annual plan, and then your quarterly action plan (which is the only one with actions). That means you do all the other planning simply to determine what your priority should be for this quarter, and then hold yourself and your team accountable to execute on this.

In my last blog post, I asked if you were too busy to succeed. A quarterly mindset is the antidote. If you’ve been in business for a number of years, and it seems like your full potential is not being realized, a strong quarterly focus will help you with moving the needle.

Take time to review your Q1 results, sales profitability, and operational metrics. Then, look at your goals (what we at TruMethods call “rocks”) and your actions for the quarter. Did you complete them? If so, what adjustments will you make for Q2? Finally, determine your rocks for Q2.

This is the process we teach in our peer groups, and it has helped hundreds of MSPs fulfill their potential. Each quarter will pass with or without you having the right priorities and the accountability to complete them. The best part about a strong quarterly focus is that even if you fall short of accomplishing all your rocks, you will still move forward dramatically faster than if you didn’t have a quarterly focus.

The key is to prioritize the accountability process. Be sure that your accountability process and the rhythm that you have in place to stay accountable is your top priority.

It’s already Q2 2022. Don’t let another quarter go by treading water.

Kaseya’s Latest Innovation Cycle Provides Enhanced Automation, Security and Compliance Capabilities to Help MSPs and SMBs Thrive in The Evolving Tech Landscape

Posted on | Author TruMethods

Key integrations allow IT professionals to streamline administrative tasks like billing and documentation, protect growing volumes of data and comply with increased regulatory requirements

MIAMI, April 21, 2022 — Kaseya, a premier provider of unified IT management and security software for managed service providers (MSPs) and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), announced today the results of its latest innovation cycle. The company had a strong first quarter, including new enhancements to its IT Complete suite of solutions to support IT professionals as they continue to juggle growing cybersecurity, compliance and remote workforce management needs.

To further support its expanding customer base, Kaseya is full steam ahead on its goal to hire over 1,000 people globally by the end of the year — with 500 of those positions based at the company’s headquarters in Miami. To accommodate its expansion plans, Kaseya is expanding its Miami footprint with 64,716 square feet of cutting-edge building space and opened a new office in Krakow, Poland earlier this year to expand its R&D footprint. To create an enhanced workforce pipeline, Kaseya has established university partnerships with organizations like Florida International University to ensure students have the skills needed to thrive in the tech industry. Kaseya has also created the Grow Your Own program to support its new hires globally through educational programs, mentorship and leadership development.

“While 2022 has brought significant opportunities due to the need for cloud migration and hybrid workforce management, MSPs and SMBs are stretched thin as they manage IT environments that are growing in complexity—all while dealing with supply chain issues and a hyper-competitive job market that has made staffing a significant challenge,” said Fred Voccola, CEO of Kaseya. “With our newest features and integrations, we’ve made our IT Complete suite of solutions even more robust—allowing IT technicians to cut down on wasted time and more efficiently protect and manage their entire IT environment.”

Product Enhancements and Integrations

Unified RMM:  

  • Azure Discovery: With VSA’s latest release, customers can now automatically discover virtual machines, SQL instances, cloud services, app services and load balancers within Azure and automatically manage and monitor Azure virtual machines — making it even easier to monitor public cloud environments.
  • Software Management 2.0: IT professionals now have access to Kaseya’s new patching engine, which offers lightning-fast scans, zero file storage requirements, an expansive catalogue with over 200 software titles and CVSS severity-based score patching policy. Software Management 2.0 helps MSPs and SMBs stay up to date on the most critical patches and secure their IT environments more effectively.
  • FIPS 140-2 Compliance: VSA achieved NIST FIPS 140-2 validation, which is a requirement for U.S. federal agencies. MSPs and SMBs will receive the benefits of government validated and certified encryption for their mission-critical data.

Compliance:

  • Compliance Manager GRC: Kaseya enhanced its award-winning compliance solution to allow MSPs and SMBs to perform one assessment for multiple standards—from CMMC and HIPAA to EU and UK GDPR. Compliance Manager GRC also allows IT professionals to create their own standards to align with cyber insurance policies, internal IT requirements and more. The solution now offers key governance, risk and compliance (GRC) features like vendor risk management, IT policy attestation and security awareness training and tracking.

Security:

  • BullPhish ID Custom Domains: The newest BullPhish ID release includes the highly-requested Custom Domains capability that allows IT professionals to specify the domain used for security awareness training emails, ensuring end users will experience a fully-branded training experience unique to their organization.
  • Dark Web ID integration with Network Detective Pro from RapidFire Tools: This industry-first feature enables customers to scan Active Directory with Network Detective Pro and compare actual employee data with compromised credentials, providing IT administrators with actionable data to better protect their organizations.
  • Passly Password Server Auditing: This highly requested feature provides IT administrators with detailed audit reporting to meet compliance requirements, verify least privilege policies are enforced, and easily validate access controls.

Backup and Disaster Recovery:

  • ION and ION+: The newest appliances from Unitrends bring enterprise-class disaster recovery features and immutable storage to small offices, leveraging a desktop form factor that fits an environment without the need for a server rack.  
  • United Kingdom data center for Spanning Microsoft 365 customers: With Spanning’s newest data center in London, England, IT professionals have more options on where their data is stored and can more easily meet regional compliance requirements. Spanning has data centers in the U.S., Europe (Dublin), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Canada (Montreal), and the United Kingdom (London) to support its global customer base.

MSP Enablement:

  • Powered Services Pro enhancements: Powered Services Pro, Kaseya’s sales and marketing enablement platform, now offers 14 product sales certifications that allow MSPs to better navigate the sales process and close more deals. The platform also launched a new Powered Services Supercharge Forum to provide increased opportunities for collaboration and Done-4-U social media services that simplify social media management for MSPs.
  • myITprocess Client Overview Report: myITprocess, Kaseya’s virtual CIO (vCIO) solution that helps MSPs build more strategic client relationships, now offers a Client Overview Report that allows MSPs to better prioritize client needs and build more impactful strategic plans.

IT Documentation:

  • Automated Account Backup in IT Glue: Technicians can now automatically export account data to ensure their documentation is available at any time, with the ability to adjust the backup cadence to meet specific compliance regulations or organizational needs.
  • Advanced Checklists in IT Glue: The latest IT Glue Checklist enhancements allow users to create, modify and copy checklist templates and apply them across different organizations—helping IT professionals standardize procedures and simplify day-to-day process management.

PSA/Service Desk:

  • Automated Services Billing through BMS and IT Glue: With this new integration, MSPs can utilize their existing IT Glue documentation to cut monthly service reconciliation and billing time from hours to minutes.

To learn more about Kaseya’s IT Complete suite of solutions, visit www.kaseya.com.

About Kaseya

Kaseya is a premier provider of unified IT management and security software for managed service providers (MSPs) and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBS). Through its customer-centric approach, Kaseya delivers best-in-breed technologies that allow organizations to efficiently manage, secure and backup IT. Kaseya offers a broad array of IT management solutions, including well-known names: Kaseya, IT Glue, RapidFire Tools, Spanning Cloud Apps, ID Agent, Graphus, RocketCyber, TruMethods and Unitrends. These solutions empower businesses to command all of IT centrally, easily manage remote and distributed environments, simplify backup and disaster recovery, safeguard against cybersecurity attacks, effectively manage compliance and network assets, streamline IT documentation and automate across IT management functions. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Kaseya is privately held with a presence in over 20 countries. To learn more, visit https://www.kaseya.com.

Are You Really ‘Too Busy’ to Succeed?

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

I think many people confuse leadership with management. In working with business owners for a very long time, I often ask them to define and rate their leadership styles. I then talk to their teams, and guess what? They’re typically not viewed the way they think they are.

What they (and most people) often fail to realize is that leaders empower people. They work to make their people self-sufficient, determine and share the results they expect, identify the metrics that define success, and pinpoint the process or the map to achieve success. Most importantly, they provide their team members with opportunities to grow.

Let’s do a quick exercise.

First, I want you to write down the business you would like to have in two years. How much revenue would it generate? What would your profit be? How many customers and employees would you have? Then, think about what your role would need to be to run that company. What would your responsibilities be? How would you need to spend your time? What would you expect from your team?

Next, track how you spend your time today. For a week, track what you’re working on in one or two-hour increments each day. Then, compare your role today with the one you would need to have in two years to reach your business goals. What do you see?

There are differences, aren’t there? (If there aren’t any differences, then you’re not thinking big enough!)

The most common thing I see with MSP leaders is that they want a better business and think they can get there by doing more of the same. Every week I hear, “I’m too busy to attend an accountability call or prepare for a meeting.”

What you really mean is the following: “I’m too busy to succeed.”

So, try the exercise I outlined above, and then put a plan together to define your role in the business based on where you want to be.

Beating Your Competitors: How Far Ahead Are You?

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

Sometimes, I have a false sense of security and optimism about the MSP market and its future. I forget how far along the TruMethods and The CyberCall communities are compared to what I call “the general population of MSPs.”

I spoke at a local event in Philadelphia recently, where about 50 MSPs attended. During the discussions I had with the MSPs in attendance, I became a bit concerned about the overall MSP market. They asked me the same questions about the same things I’ve been hearing for the past five years. Even worse, they pushed back and questioned things our communities have either moved on from or overcame.

If you’re a TruMethods member or a listener of The CyberCall, I feel like this creates an opportunity for you. While you may be up against some good competitors in your market today, the lion’s share of incumbents isn’t as advanced as you. As you uncover prospects, you’re going to ask them the right questions and uncover pain. Unlike your competitors, you’re going to create separation between a prospect’s current provider and you.

Take advantage of this situation.

Your understanding of this business (the way you look at it through the TruMethods framework and lens) is superior. Believe me, most MSPs still don’t have a good grasp on their costs, delivery roles, and metrics. What does that mean? You guessed it: They don’t have a great grip on their results.

So, let’s dig deep. If I were in your shoes right now, I would want to be in front of as many prospects as possible. From a marketing standpoint, think about what you can do to get in front of new people to share your story.

I think you’re going to like the results when you do that.

myITprocess Feature Release: Client Overview Report

Posted on | Author TruMethods

In an era where we have so many initiatives, prioritizing the key activities that make the biggest impact on your bottom line is extremely important.

The new myITprocess Client Overview Report provides a holistic view of all clients managed over all areas of vCIO technology assessments, including security, compliance, hardware, and software. This enables myITprocess users to prioritize clients or services that will make the biggest impact on their business bottom line and allow them to successfully plan out short-term and long-term goals and plans.

The myITprocess Client Overview Report helps users identify in one single view:

  • Who is your biggest opportunity and priority?
  • What technology is your biggest opportunity and priority?
  • Where is the risk for you as an MSP?
  • Which piece of technology is not managed, or which client has more areas of risk?

The Client Overview Report illustrates this by showing you a list of vCIO technology assessments and how each client scores based on these assessments.

  • Red = Weakness identified in technologies assessed
  • Yellow = Improvements are needed in technologies assessed
  • Green = Technology is aligned, and no further actions are required

The Client Overview Report provides default percentages that correspond to the associated red, yellow, and green colors to help identify your focal points and priorities. MSPs also have the option to customize the percentages to fit their own unique business requirements.

To view the Client Overview Report in myITprocess, click on Reports > Client Overview Report. For more information on this feature, check out our Knowledge Base. For more information on myITprocess, click here. We are confident that this new feature will help our existing users have further success when utilizing the myITprocess software.